it’s a big night here in atlanta. john smoltz, the braves’ best starting pitcher, got career win no. 200. and he pitched against his best friend and fellow future hall of famer, tom glavine. it was a fantastic game. smoltz was amazing: no runs, 7 hits, no walks in 7 innings. the ninth inning got us a little worried after closer bob wickman gave up some big hits and second baseman kelly johnson made a really bad fumble. but, wickman closed it out and smoltz has now secured his spot in the hall of fame. yay.

last night, i decided to change up our dinner routine. since i work a lot of late nights and, when i don’t have meetings, don’t get home until after 7 p.m., i’m usually too tired to cook. we’ve gotten into the routine of having the same old things for dinner. i’m trying to change that though. last night, i made the mexican casserole i saw on nanette’s blog. it was delicious. i substituted morningstar farms’ griller crumbles for the ground beef and didn’t use cheese. joe absolutely loved it. yay. it was easy to make, filling and yummy. a perfect combination.

now, to switch gears. i’m psyched about our new york trip in july. it’ll be a quick one but one that’s filled with things to do. we’re flying up saturday morning and then driving from laguardia to albany. the baseball hall of fame induction is sunday, and then we’ll head back to new york city. we’re staying with joe’s cousin tommy and his family on staten island, which will be a lot of fun. one of the highlights of the trip (besides the hall of fame) is the yankees game we’re going to tuesday night. we were going to fly home tuesday morning, but when we saw the yankees were playing that night in town, we decided to stay an extra day. our goal is to visit every stadium in the country, so this is a good start! plus, it’ll be a lot of fun. we’re big dorks, but we’re ok with that.

it’s all about hockey in my home tonight. it’s the first time in the team’s history making the playoffs. joe’s been talking about it all day, and i know his friends are as much glued to their televisions right now as he is. he’s already worrying about what he’ll do if it goes to games 5 and 6 next friday and sunday, as we won’t be getting directtv hooked up until monday. poor, poor boy.

it’ll be fun to watch. hockey’s a pretty fun sport. but, i’m sure in 30 minutes i’ll wander into another room to watch survivor. joe’s not too into that show anyway, so he won’t miss anything.

speaking of tv, notes from the underbelly starts tonight. i’m interested to see how it is. the commercials look funny, but you never can tell.

on sunday, i started out at a high resistance on the bike and every couple of minutes took it down a notch, biking at a higher speed.

i don’t remember what i did monday, but i know it was tough. tonight was probably my hardest yet. i did 30 minutes alternating with two minutes at 2 resistance biking between 15.5-16 m.p.h. and then one minute at 1 resistance going 18-19 m.p.h. i honestly didn’t think i’d make it the entire 30 minutes, but now that i did i’m quite proud of myself, even if my knees are sore.

i also did 10 minutes of abs doing the bicycle, planks and crunches. joe taught me a version of crunches that is a lot tougher. you come up into a crunch and then twist to both sides. it’s rough because you’re up a lot longer than normal. i feel good though. i am determined to have a flat stomach.

now it’s off to watch some braves baseball and eat take-out as i don’t feel like cooking right now. 🙂

the braves are off to a smashing start to the 2007 season. they beat the phillies 5-3 after 10 innings on opening day, and last night won 3-2 in 11 innings. i have to say, i was impressed with both pitchers last night.Â philadelphia’s cole hamels and our tim hudsonÂ pitched fabulous games. in fact, philadelphia was up when their starter went out, and their bullpen blew their lead by giving up a two-run homer to brian mccann. i didn’t watch much of the game monday night, but apparantly the phillies relievers blew that lead also. it seems like the teams have flipflopped this year. last year, it was *our* bullpen that blew basically every single lead. they’ve had a 180-degree turnaround this year though. what a difference an off season makes.

the hard part of being a baseball fan comes when people on your fantasy team are playing your team. last night, i had philadelphia’s jimmy rollins playing against the braves, so every time he stepped up to the plate i hoped he would get stats for me, but also not do anything to ruin the braves’ win. it’s a catch 22 sometimes. joe and i were watching together during one of rollins’ at bats, and i cheered, “come on, rollins. get me a hit!” joe glared at me. all i asked for was a hit. i didn’t ask for a home run. i didn’t even ask for a stolen base, which would have been nice because that category killed me last year. oh well.

today is the last game between the braves and phillies. let’s hope today makes it a series sweep. go braves!

that’s right folks, it is the happiest time of the year — baseball season! i am so excited. joe and i have been waiting for april since last fall. i’m glad i married someone as big into baseball as i (and i’m sure he feels the same way). since joe is now following the royals, we are getting the baseball package when we move. we were hoping our cable company carried it, but it is exclusively for directtv. i’m glad, though, because we are dropping comcast for directtv. yay. we’ll be getting more than double the channels we are now for about the same price, plus free dvrs in two rooms.

Asides

My kiddo has been big into music lately. She really likes drumming, and lately, she's really been into toy guitars that we've seen at the store. I want to encourage her love for music, obviously, but a little part of me kind of hopes it's just a toddler phase. I can totally picture requests for vestax at Guitar Center and the noise, and...oh, you know.

Asides

My kiddo has been big into music lately. She really likes drumming, and lately, she's really been into toy guitars that we've seen at the store. I want to encourage her love for music, obviously, but a little part of me kind of hopes it's just a toddler phase. I can totally picture requests for vestax at Guitar Center and the noise, and...oh, you know.